More to FAA shutdown than air service subsidies

“Yes, I did work with our leadership to find some pressure points to get leverage on the (long-term) bill,” Mica told the AP. “I didn’t ask for a lot.”

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the senior Senate GOP negotiator on the FAA bill, called Mica’s inclusion of the subsidy cuts in the extension bill a “procedural hand grenade.”

It has been House Republicans who have refused to negotiate with the Senate unless Democrats agreed to concessions on the labor issue, Hutchison said.

The House bill was approved on July 20 by a mostly party-line vote. Senate Democrats have introduced their own FAA extension bill with no strings attached, but Republicans have repeatedly blocked votes on the measure. Democrats have responded in kind, blocking votes on the House-passed bill containing the subsidy cuts.

A few days ago, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, indicated to Democrats that he’d be willing to accept their extension bill without the subsidy cuts in exchange for concessions on the labor issue, but Democrats refused the offer, Rockefeller said.